Manufacturing growth accelerates in China

Chinese shoppers and Christmas decorations are reflected in mirrors inside a shopping mall in Beijing. Photo: AP

BT :Associated Press    Beijing  : December 31, 2012  | 12:12 IST

China's manufacturing grew at its strongest rate in 18 months in December but new exports fell from the previous month due to weak global demand, a survey showed on Monday.

HSBC Corp said its monthly purchasing managers' index rose to 51.1 per cent on a 100-point scale on which numbers above 50 show expansion. That was up from November's 50.5 and the strongest growth since May 2011.

The survey adds to data showing China's economy is recovering from its deepest downturn since the 2008 crisis but some industries are still weak.

"Such a momentum is likely to be sustained in the coming months when infrastructure construction runs into full speed and property market conditions stabilize," said Hongbin Qu, HSBC's chief China economist, in a statement.

Zuma press :WSJ
Qu said the latest activity should support growth of about 8.6 per cent in 2013. The International Monetary Fund and private sector forecasters expect growth of about 8 per cent in 2012 - strong by Western standards but China's weakest expansion since the 1990s.

Factory production and consumer spending are picking up but export demand is weak. December trade data have yet to be reported but November export growth plunged to 2.9 percent over a year earlier from the previous month's 11.6 percent.

Companies responding to the HSBC survey said total new orders grew at a faster pace in December than the previous month but new export orders fell slightly. Just over 12 percent of companies reported lower new export orders.

"Fewer export sales were linked to weak demand in Europe, Japan and the U.S.," HSBC said.

Beijing set a 10 percent target for trade growth in 2012 but is likely to fall far short of that. Demand for China's goods is so weak that the government has said exports will contribute nothing to 2012's overall economic growth.

The commerce minister, Chen Deming, warned in November that Chinese exporters face "relatively grim" conditions in coming months and "many difficulties next year."

Western export markets face uncertainties including the U.S. "fiscal cliff" - or impending automatic tax and spending cuts that could disrupt economic growth - and the euro area debt crisis

In China, wealth does not mean happiness as suicides and unnatural deaths among rich on rise

Source  : ET :27 NOV, 2011, 04.00AM IST, 
By: Yu Ran (China Times) 





For Jiang Jie, 34, wealth did not mean happiness. He attempted suicide about six years ago after he went from being a millionaire to penniless over the course of a month.


 "I never felt so depressed," Jiang said. "I seemed to lose my faith in life after a huge investment failure left me with almost no money." 

Recent decades have brought wealth within the grasp of a greater proportion of the population than ever before. 
According to the Hurun Wealth Report 2011, one out of every 1,400 Chinese residents, or 960,000 individuals, have assets worth at least 10 million yuan ($1.57 million), a number that has increased by 9.7% since 2010. 

Of these, 55% are business owners, 20% property speculators, 15% stock advisers and 10% salaried executives. 

China is also home to 60,000 of the "super-rich", who have 100 million yuan or more, a number that has increased by 9% since 2010. 

That new-found wealth has undoubtedly brought many blessings. But not necessarily longevity, statistics show. 

The past eight years have seen the deaths of 72 millionaires and billionaires who had a net worth of more than 100 million yuan. Nineteen died from illnesses and 53 from unnatural causes such as suicide, accident and murder, according to an analysis of media reports conducted by the Changchun-based metropolitan newspaperNew Culture Daily. 

That death rate was similar to the police, the job with the highest risk factor in the country. From 2008 to 2010, three out of every 10,000 police officers died on duty. 

What is the cause of the high death rate among the extremely rich? Jiang's case offers at least a partial answer. 

Jiang was born to a well-to-do family that ran a steel company in Anshan, Liaoning province. When he was 16, he dropped out of senior high school and took over his father's company. Four years later he had made his first million yuan. 

Although many people undoubtedly envied him for his good fortunes, getting rich wasn't the best thing that could have happened to him. By his own admission he became arrogant and acquisitive. Against his parents' advice, he put all of his money into land that was eventually to be turned into a holiday resort, an investment he said he considered to be "very promising". A month later, the organiser of the project declared bankruptcy. 

Learning of his misstep, Jiang took a bottle of sleeping pills with the goal of killing himself. He was only saved through the intervention of his parents. 

Looking back on his brush with death, Jiang said it was just what he needed to gain a new lust for life. 

"Even though I'm now just an ordinary white-collar worker at a company, I'm happier and no longer feel the need to make so much money, " he said. 
Other Cases 

One example of an extremely rich man who died before his time can be seen in Li Haicang, the founder of the Highsee Iron and Steel Group Co Ltd in Shanxi province. Li was shot in the back of the head in 2003 by a friend who then killed himself. The police later ruled that the slaying had been the result of a commercial dispute. 

India, China firms sign MoUs for expanding cooperation

Source : :PTI May 31 2010 , Shanghai

Business representatives of India and China signed three MoUs today to expand cooperation, under

which leading Indian firms Infosys and Wipro committed to undertake projects in the world's fastest growing economy.

Wipro signed an agreement to set up a hydraulic cylinder manufacturing unit in the eastern Chinese city of Changzou.

The MoU was signed between Harish J Shah, head of Wipro's Global Operations and Shen-Ruiqing, Secretary General of the Standing Committee of the Communist Party of China of Changzou.

Under the agreement, Wipro will set up a plant that will manufacture high pressure precision hydraulic cylinders, and an R&D facility will be established to enable this centre.

Software giant Infosys will set up an education centre at Jiaxing to develop software talent in huge numbers to meet its growing business demand.

The Indian company will train up to 1000 engineering graduates under this agreement, an MoU for which was signed by Rangarajan, COO of Infosys China and Bong Miaohu, the Mayor of Nanhu district.

The agreements were signed during a meeting of business leaders of the two countries here today on the sidelines of President Pratibha Patil's visit to Shanghai.

Chinese electric power company SEPCO has undertaken to develop a 1050 MW coal-based thermal power project in Orissa.

The company, which is already working on the thermal power project, has committed to expand its capacity by adding a 350 MW unit to it.

The agreement to this regard was signed by Wang Lingfang, President of SEPCO Electric Power Construction Corporation from SEPCO's side and K V V Rao, Managing Director of GMRK Energy Limited.

As part of the agreements, the Fudan University in Shanghai agreed to consider to establish an annual Visiting Chair in Humanities and Social Sciences.

The agreement to this effect was signed between the Indian Council of Cultural Relations (ICCR) and Fudan University.

While S Jayshankar, Ambassador of India to China, signed the agreement from the Indian side, Yu Liang Yang, President of the Fudan University sealed it from the Chinese side.

The proposal concerns inviting a Professor from India during a four-month semester of each academic year.

As many as 57 business delegates represented 50 companies including Aargus, GMR, Infosys and Wipro, among others.

The Indian business leaders emphasised the need to have a balanced trade and equidistant trade relationship.

Businessmen from both countries also sought identification of new areas of cooperation

Ignore China at your own risk

Source : FC :Arun Kumar Jain May 17 2010

There is an old Chinese saying that the mountains are high and the emperor
is far away. 

Since China is such a huge country, many events occurring in one region remain unknown in other regions for a long time. In the globalised world, this proverb could also means that trends and events happening in China may remain hidden from the rest of the world for a long time!
We know that Chinese manufacturing has already made its way all over the world. Open any laptop, mobile phone, flat or plasma TV set, or video game. Irrespective of brand, it is most likely that the complex piece of technology has been made and assembled in China including the chips, battery, and casings.

Yet, somehow, the impression persists that Chinese goods are inferior and generally unreliable. Much of this emanates from publicity about Chinese sweat-shops and business practices. China has faced anti-dumping charges and duties in many countries. In 2006, it was taken to court at WTO by the US. Its companies have been marked for unsafe and dangerous exports of dairy and food products, lead-painted toys and toothpaste. No doubt, China is also one the world’s largest producers of copycat, counterfeit and pirated software, luxury goods, videos, and even medicines. Senates and parliaments have debated imposing penalties on China for currency manipulation, restrictive and unfair trade practices, and intellectual property rights.

But that is a small and superficial part of Chinese global industrial juggernaut. Most developed countries are running huge trade deficits with China. US alone had a trade deficit of above $300 billion in 2008. Most think that such trade surpluses are a result of low-cost platform that China provides. This is partly true, but not entirely.

As a rule, one must be respectful to any country that becomes No. 1 in any area. China is already the world’s leading exporting nation, having overtaken Germany in 2008-09. However, unlike Germany, the range of goods and industries in which Chinese firms have taken a lead position is astounding. Starting with commodity such as steel, the country also leads in production of electronics hardware, textiles, toys, shoes and leather products (including ladies handbags), telecom equipment, military hardware, solar panels for photo-voltaic conversion, electric bikes, batteries for electric cars, to name just a few. The country is slated to be amongst the top two producers of passenger aircrafts within a decade, and will give Boeing and Airbus a run for their money.

The point here is that it is time to review some of our embedded perceptions about China, and to understand how the country and its firms systematically scour global markets for business opportunities, technologies, and resource mobilisation. We already know of some Chinese firms such as SAIC (automobiles), CACC (commercial aircraft), Haier, Huawei, Lenovo, Goldwind and TTI that are aggressive in global markets.

Not many know of another quiet revolution happening around the globe, where Chinese companies are strategically buying majority shares in unlisted SMEs. These companies provide resources such as innovation capability, hi-technology and access to big consumers. Consider the following examples. Schiess Gmbh is a respected construction machinery maker in Germany having a history of more than 150 years in high-technology innovations. Though multinational in character, the company remained unlisted, privately owned entity. It specialises in machining components of very large size such as turbines or tunnel cutting. The company also boasts of micrometre precision even for lengths of 10 metres. Schiess was gradually taken over by Shenyang Machine Tool, the biggest tool manufacturer in China, specialising in small and medium-scale cutting machine tools. Schiess provides strategic depth to SMTCL in terms of product range and geographic coverage. The best part of this unpublicised acquisition is that the entire original German structure remains intact and Chinese ownership is hardly felt either by the customer or by its employees.

In a recent issue, the weekly Economist mentioned similar Chinese acquisitions of smaller Japanese companies. BYD, a Chinese car maker in which Warren Buffett has invested, acquired the Japanese dye maker factory of Ogihara for its unique capability for precision drill technology. The deal was never publicised. The weekly also mentions another acquisition of Laox by a Chinese appliances retailer Suning. The reasons for this acquisition are again strategic — learning to match famed Japanese quality and service standards at the supplier’s and distributor’s end, learning to innovate.

The writings are clear: disregard competition from China in innovation and high-technology areas at your own risk. Till not long ago, South Korea and Taiwan were considered sweatshops. Now they have some global leaders in their ranks (Samsung, LG, Acer). The Chinese have arrived and are coming in hordes.

Indians see China as a land of economic opportunities: survey

 Source :Ananth Krishnan :BEIJING, May 16, 2010

But majority of Chinese look at India either as threat or as a far less developed nation

While Indians are beginning to increasingly view China as a land of economic opportunities, a majority of Chinese continue to look at India either as a threat or as a far less developed country, according to a survey conducted by a Beijing-based research group.

 

The survey, carried out between year 2000 and 2009 by Horizon Research, found that Chinese perceptions of India were beginning to slowly improve — 45 per cent now viewed India favourably. However, most Chinese still perceived India, along with the United States and Japan, as the countries that most posed a threat to China. The study also found that Chinese viewed Pakistan as a better partner than India.

Contrastingly, Indian perceptions of China were more positive. Only 23 per cent of 4,500 surveyed in India viewed China as an enemy.

“What we found was that Chinese people still have many misperceptions about India,” said Yuan Yue, chairman of Horizon Research. “Chinese people feel India is developing slowly, but the majority of Indian people feel China is an emerging country which will soon even replace the U.S.” 

Almost half of those surveyed in India, he said, believed China would replace the U.S. as the world's dominant power.

Mr. Yuan did not comment on what role China's media, which are State-controlled, may have had on shaping attitudes towards India.

Consequently, Mr. Yuan noted, more Indians were willing to travel to China for business and tourism, while fewer people in China viewed India as an opportunity. India ranked below the U.S., Russia, Europe and South Korea as countries Chinese viewed as destinations for business or education.

Among other Chinese perceptions of India, the survey found Chinese viewed India as the “weakest” of the four BRIC nations — Brazil, Russia, India and China. 

The survey's findings, revealed at the start of a two-day forum examining relations between the two countries, served as a sobering reminder to both officials and scholars present of the wide perception gap that persists between the neighbours, even as they celebrate 60 years of bilateral ties this year. 

“The survey shows we need to increase dialogue and exchanges,” Mr. Yuan said.

Indian Ambassador to China S. Jaishankar said the current period in bilateral relations, one of “blue skies” following the border-related tensions of last year, presented an opportunity to do so. “There is a Chinese saying that roofs are better repaired before it rains,” he said. “Clearly, that is done best when the sun is shining. Even as we acknowledge the progress in our ties, it is important that we focus on initiatives to further strengthen them.” Part of the initiative, he said, was “to put in place a broader engagement between our societies.”

For China, world on a platter

Source:FC:Urs Schöttli May 06 2010

A few days ago the world exposition in Shanghai opened its doors to thepublic. After the 2008 Summer Olympics in Beijing this is the second major world event, with which China makes global headlines. In the run-up to the two events we noted that while in Beijing the attention focused on the Olympics, in Shanghai the main interest was for Expo 2010. Observers who had been at the opening ceremony in Beijing’s bird’s nest noted that the fireworks that launched the Shanghai Expo were far grander. Proud Shanghai officials mention with glee that the Olympics had been a short event, while the Shanghai Expo will last a full six months.

Obviously, this is a new round in the eternal rivalry between the two great cities. World expositions come and go and most of them get quickly forgotten. However, a few of these events have gained a particularly emblematic significance.

We think of the Great Exhibition in London’s Crystal Palace in 1851 or of the World’s Fair in Paris in 1889, which gave the French capital a new monument of global fame, the Eiffel Tower. The London exhibition was also the celebration of the great British Empire.

At that time it not only spanned the world, it also proudly claimed to have reached the apex of the white man’s civilisationary mission in the world. The Paris exhibition, like many paintings of the Impressionists, was the celebration of a new age, the age of technology and industrial power.

A few years ago we met officials who were in charge of planning the Shanghai Expo 2010. They stressed that the main goal of the giant event was “to bring the world to the Chinese people”. Of course the Expo, together with the Summer Olympics, was also to be a kind of “coming of age party”, a demonstration to the world at large that China had returned to the top table. These two events are indeed a symbolic celebration of the historic economic, technological and social modernisation that has propelled China into the 21st century.

In many ways, the Shanghai Expo is a tribute to the greatest Chinese reformer in modern times, Deng Xiaoping. He stands for the gigantic efforts with which China has overcome the dreadful legacy of chairman Mao who had left the country destroyed and impoverished.

But let us go back to the claim of the Chinese officials that the Shanghai Expo mainly serves the purpose to bring the world to the Chinese people. It is this ambitious mission which puts the Shanghai Expo amongst the most important exhibitions. The officials expect some 70 million people to visit the six-month event. The overwhelming majority of the visitors will be from China.

In comparison, the number of foreign guests will be insignificant. It is to be expected that visitors from the distant provinces and remote towns will come to Shanghai in organised groups. The Communist Party will invite deserving members. Local dignitaries from all the four corners of the country will come to Shanghai and spend a good time at the Expo. Universities will send their eager teachers and students and, of course, the Chinese media will report at great length on the smallest detail of this gigantic show.

It will be interesting to see which pavilions will rank amongst the most popular. Of course, as is normal with a country that has emerged from two centuries of humiliation by foreigners, the focus will be first and foremost on the Chinese pavilions. The Shanghai Expo does not only present the world to China, it also wants to demonstrate the rapid rise of China to the top of the world economy.

Without any doubt the pavilion of the United States will attract most attention. The Japanese, too, can expect to be amongst the very top when it comes to the number of visitors. It is a telling fact that in both cases the bilateral relations are not free from friction.

However, the Chinese are pragmatic enough to distinguish between emotions and utility. They know that their country’s future needs the top technology, which only the United States and Japan can provide. The main political message, which the Chinese government wants to spread at the Shanghai Expo has to deal with the quality of life, particularly in an urban setting.

A strong emphasis is put on the respect for nature and the environment. However, it is expected that for the huge majority the main interest will be in getting an impression of as many foreign pavilions as possible.

It will be for them the first fleeting contact with people from distant parts of the world and will raise their curiosity for the world beyond China’s borders. This then, will be the historic legacy of the Shanghai Expo.